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My understanding of salmonella: It is natural flora inside the reptiles. It does NOT "live on their skin" per se. If your tegu poops/pees and walks through it or burrows into it, it will be on their skin and, being a hardy bacteria, can live there for a few days iirc.

I take my boa constrictor and my tegu in to kindergarten classrooms, out to parks, etc. Small children interact with the reptiles and none has ever gotten salmonella. That's because every time one of my reptiles relieves herself (they're both female), she gets a bath. It helps that they both enjoy bath time. They also get a bath right before any social/outreach activities. If you wouldn't pet a dog that just rolled in its pee, why would you pet a snake that's covered in its own pee? It just makes sense. As does hand-washing after interacting with any animal.

Amphibians and turtles are a bit more complicated because (again, if my understanding is correct) the salmonella ends up living in their water, so maybe someone else could chime in on those?

<blockquote data-quote="Trede" data-source="post: 156969" data-attributes="member: 6757">My understanding of salmonella: It is natural flora inside the reptiles. It does NOT &quot;live on their skin&quot; per se. If your tegu poops/pees and walks through it or burrows into it, it will be on their skin and, being a hardy bacteria, can live there for a few days iirc. I take my boa constrictor and my tegu in to kindergarten classrooms, out to parks, etc. Small children interact with the reptiles and none has ever gotten salmonella. That's because every time one of my reptiles relieves herself (they're both female), she gets a bath. It helps that they both enjoy bath time. They also get a bath right before any social/outreach activities. If you wouldn't pet a dog that just rolled in its pee, why would&nbsp; you pet a snake that's covered in its own pee? It just makes sense. As does hand-washing after interacting with any animal.Amphibians and turtles are a bit more complicated because (again, if my understanding is correct) the salmonella ends up living in their water, so maybe someone else could chime in on those?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Trede, post: 156969, member: 6757"] My understanding of salmonella: It is natural flora inside the reptiles. It does NOT "live on their skin" per se. If your tegu poops/pees and walks through it or burrows into it, it will be on their skin and, being a hardy bacteria, can live there for a few days iirc. I take my boa constrictor and my tegu in to kindergarten classrooms, out to parks, etc. Small children interact with the reptiles and none has ever gotten salmonella. That's because every time one of my reptiles relieves herself (they're both female), she gets a bath. It helps that they both enjoy bath time. They also get a bath right before any social/outreach activities. If you wouldn't pet a dog that just rolled in its pee, why would you pet a snake that's covered in its own pee? It just makes sense. As does hand-washing after interacting with any animal. Amphibians and turtles are a bit more complicated because (again, if my understanding is correct) the salmonella ends up living in their water, so maybe someone else could chime in on those? [/QUOTE]

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